In my attempt to learn Mandarin, my colleague recommended me to use the pinyin keyboard rather than the writing one.

The good is that I type much faster but the bad is that I take the lazy way and not really want to learn how to write.

But the other problem though is this: I can read, listen and understand the words and I can say them quite accurately but I could not for the life of me spell them in the correct pinyin symbols.

Especially these nine sounds that comes in three triplets: z, zh and j; c, ch and q; s, sh and x.

So I thought if I can memorize nine common and familiar words, I could slowly figure out which is which.

I came up with these:

zū 组 zhū 猪 jù 句 (rent, pig, sentence)

cù 醋 chū 出 qù 去 (vinegar, out, go)

sù 诉 shū 书 xū 需 (tell, book, need)

I then realized that the u sound of the last triplet of each set is not pronounced the same as in the first two. The first two are always pronounced with an oo sound whilst the third is always with an ü sound.

And looking at the 19 books I have read so far this year—which is the least number of books in the last 6 years since I went back to serious reading—I have not read a single novel.

I started hunting for one and happened upon this.

The End of Your Life Book Club

by Will Schwalbe

I love books about books and as I read it, I also like its voice and feel.

How could a book lover and avid reader ignore a book that is labeled as "a true meditation on what books can do"?

But as I got on with it, I began to realize that it is not a novel after all, but an account of the writer's last days with his dying mom.

But I was already invested in the book and could not put it down.

The novel will have to wait. It will have to come after this, or never, for the year at least.

One part of the book that I really like was when the author said:

Mom and I loved opening lines of novels. “The small boys came early to the hanging” was one of our favorites, from Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth. How could you not go on reading? And the first sentence of John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany: “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” And E. M. Forster’s first line in Howards End: “One may as well begin with Helen’s letters to her sister.” It’s the “may as well” that draws you in—casual, chatty even, yet it gives the reader a strong sense that there’s a lot of story to come.

Obviously I went to check out his first line after reading that paragraph, and it was this:

We were nuts about the mocha in the waiting room at Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s outpatient care center.

I don't know about you but I was hooked right there and then, and didn't even know it.

But I have always believe in only reading books that start well for me. Only that I didn't really pay attention to the opening lines.

I am having a very pleasant Saturday. I thought it will be tough with no TV for the fourth weekend but so far I have not even thought of it today.

I was up early to drive my son to a conference. And since I was out already, I dropped by the nearest Starbucks in Puchong where I spent two hours going through one of my language flashcard decks. It was a solid full hours of language learning.

It was hard work but fun.

I was also listening to this playlist of music which I have not been paying attention in a long while.

In the midst of my language learning, I try to immerse myself as much as I can through the music I listen to, the TV I watch and the articles I read.

But I thought I'd go English today.

And I realized I do have quite a decent playlist:

You can see that I really like songs that are slow to moderate, and particularly those with clear singing voices. As for genre, most of them are rock, indie rock and alternative.

But my music preference are quite diverse. I have lists ranging from classical to gospel, sacred to pop, rock to chant, M-pop to K-pop to R&B.

I don't mind the others, but maybe except for techno, heavy metal and jazz.

I have this playlist in my Apple Music which I can't remember when or why I've created it.

It's a list of songs by 4Men, a South Korean R&B group. Every time I housekeep my lists, I would want to delete it but after listening to the opening of one of their songs, I'd like the sound and end up not deleting it.

I wanted to listen to something different today and thought I'd check the list out.

And now I know why I still kept it. They are really talented, with excellent voices.

I read somewhere that songs and singing is deep in the Korean culture. They are exposed to it from childhood and they never stop singing into adulthood.

And so far I've heard a few good voices.

This is one of their best songs. The person with that awesome voice is the one is the middle, 신용재 Shin Yong Jae.

I am glad I grew up with music in my family though I wish I have been more serious about it then.

But I am glad that by the grace of God, I grew up in faith communities that gave me the opportunity to serve in the music ministry, in the little ways that I am able.

I spent the last two days attending an excellent training called the Excel and PowerPoint Productivity Hack.

I know I will have lots to learn in Excel because I really think it's one of the most powerful and useful tool we have.

I wasn't so sure about PowerPoint. I have taken the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification before, albeit a very long time ago, I thought there wasn't much to it anymore.

I was so wrong.

The training was at just the right level. Not too basic and too advanced. Most of the ones I have attended before were either too boring because I already know what was being taught or too complicated and not relevant for use.

This one is different. The trainer gave us many useful tips and gave me answers to questions I have had all along with the vlookup function and especially pivot tables.

Then she taught us how to link Excel with PowerPoint where we can use pivot tables with the slicer (slicer? I've heard of slicers in my life and they are awesome!) in Powerpoint, and that with realtime control from Excel.

I learnt so much and gained access to many resources I never knew about.

Since I can't begin to teach the "hacks" here, you could try searching YouTube on how to replace the vlookup function with the index and match functions. They work much better than the infamous vlookup.

And the trick to manage pivot tables is to setup your table using CTRL + T, after which you don't have to worry about editing or expanding the table. Your pivot tables will still work.

I had several pen-pals back in my childhood days. Those were the times of aerogrammes and postmen.

I remember back then when I got back from school every day, I'd wait by the doorway anticipating the ring of the postmen bicycle bell, which of course didn't happen very often.

I'd probably get a reply once every month or two. But thinking back, it does feel like I had a lot of time.

Life wasn't in a hurry.

When I started working, I still made pen-pals but this time, it was the email. I had some disposable income then and we even exchanged gifts by mail.

I remember once coming home to a box on the floor just outside the door. The errant postmen just threw it in and the chocolate in it were mostly reduced to a melted mess. But they still tasted so good.

Next came the blog.

I made many more friends through blogging. The exchange wasn't as long as letters or emails but they were current and relevant. But blogging soon took a dive and weren't as active anymore.

Life has gone into a much faster pace and ironically, there is now not as much time as we had before. There is just not enough of it.

Now? It's messaging.

I made several good friends recently via italki in my pursuit of learning new languages. And the messaging apps that I use almost every day are WeChat with my Chinese and Taiwanese friends, and Kakao with my Korean friends.

It is real-time and it is really like they are there with me, sometimes yakking away way into the night.

I have been using the Decipher Chinese app everyday since I found out about it and I'm happy with it even though I have not paid to subscribe, which I don't think I will.

This is because I'm quite invested in using Anki and I don't need another SRS app to complicate my learning of the language. What I need to do now is to figure Anki out a bit on its technical side and use it more effectively.

For example, now I can add words and phrases from Decipher to Anki and reposition it to appear first without having to wait until I reach the 6000th card!

Decipher does have some interesting articles, like this one. I wondered before why are "things" in Chinese called 东四 dòng xi or literally east west, andnot 南北 nán běi or south north.

It is because of the Chinese 五行 wǔ xíng, whichis the five phases of Chinese philosophy vis-à-vis wood, fire, earth, metal and water, the five elements that are believed to represent everything on earth.

And these elements are represented by the directions: east being wood, south fire, west metal and north water.

And because the only two items that can be held are wood and metal, things are therefore represented by east and west, hence 东四 dòng xi.

I was at Faith Methodist Church Cheras today as Grace Notes presented an anniversary anthem for their 30th anniversary celebration.

I was glad to be there and I realize how much I miss attending a liturgical Methodist Sunday service!

Rev Dr T Jeyakumar was the speaker and his sermon based on Revelation 14:1-5 was a very good lesson and reminder for me to remain faithful to the Lord.

Revelation 14:1-5 NLT

Then I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of mighty ocean waves or the rolling of loud thunder. It was like the sound of many harpists playing together. This great choir sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four living beings and the twenty-four elders. No one could learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. They have kept themselves as pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been purchased from among the people on the earth as a special offering to God and to the Lamb. They have told no lies; they are without blame.

The author of Revelation uses a lot of imagery language and the 144,000 people is used to represent all the people that belongs to God.

But why the number 144,000?

12 times 12 times 1000? If it is really 12 times 12 times 1000, then it clearly depicts all of the redeemed people of the Lord - 12 tribes multiplied by 12 tribes and on top of it multiplied by a thousand.

I like Rev Jeya's focus on verse 4: It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. (ESV)

When I first read v.4, I felt rather discouraged. I know I am not pure nor have I been really following and obeying all the time. Does that mean I am not part of the 144,000?

But again Rev Jeya reminded us that it's imagery language that was used and that v.4 takes on the marriage covenant imagery where the groom remained undefiled.

As such the three lessons of v.4 is that of (1) being faithful, (2) following Christ and (3) belonging to God as his redeemed.

With that I am most encouraged.

Rev Jeya also gave us some examples in being faithful to God. It is easy when things are well and good but when things get tough, will we still be faithful?

The stories he told were harrowing true events.

First, he referred to what happened recently when three bus loads of Christians were stopped by a group of ISIS men in Egypt. They were ordered to alight the bus one by one and each of them were asked two questions: "Are you Muslim?" and "Will you be a Muslim?" As they firmly stood by their faith, they were either shot or had their throats slit. Imagine you were in the line to get off the bus to answer the two questions and as you watch what is happening, will you remain faithful?

The second story about Nabeel Qureshi. He was a Muslim who became a Christian after he studied the Bible and as much as he tried to refute it, in the end he found there is no way he could deny the logical truth and the love of Christ. He then put his life into studying theology and spent his days being a testimony for Christ but he faced a lot of cruel criticisms from a lot of people. He soon found himself in stage 4 stomach cancer and the verbal abuse became even more relentless. He held on firmly to his faith in Christ till his death on 16 September 2017. If we were in such a situation, will we still hold on to our faith?

His third story was one that made me tear up. I don't cry easily but this one made me. I did a search and found it in a book entitled Heroes of Our Faith by Patrick Sookhdeo (2012).

I really can't imagine how it will be like when one is being buried alive, and what more with kids!

Will you remain faithful?

Tonight we will have supper with the King of kings, the Lord of lords.

The wedding was conducted at the Tamil Methodist Church in Brickfields Kuala Lumpur, and it was a very delightful event.

Congratulations Lionel and Rachel! May the Lord bless your new beginning with his fullness of joy, peace, hope and love.

And it was during their wedding dinner that I picked up this song which was used as the accompanying music to the church ceremony video.

I absolutely fell in love with the song - the words, the guitar, the mood and the voice. And since I'm so into languages lately, it is time I add something in Malay--making it five--and this song really shows that I'm basically a romantic at heart.

I had another serendipitous (this is fast becoming my favourite English word) find: an excellent Chinese reading app called Decipher Chinese.

It is a service that provides HSK graded articles written by Mandarin teachers through a learn-as-you-read activity that you can do on a daily basis with their new articles posted everyday.

I think this would work better than the HSK-based books I found earlier, which I have not purchased any yet.

This is how the app looks like today:

I am still using the free version and therefore, I do not get access to all their articles. Each article is marked with the HSK level, which you can choose to attempt reading.

And this is one of the articles I was reading today. Each word is marked with the HSK level and as such I should know all the words in grey and green, which is from HSK1-3 and some of the words in yellow, which is HSK 4. When you tap on each word, you will have its meaning, pinyin and audio.

I am also able to add words into a vocabulary list that can be used as an SRS-based flashcard deck.

But alas, as it is with free apps, there are limitations to it. Articles I have read will become inaccessible after a few days and I have a limit of only 30 words in the vocabulary list.

Subscription is at RM20.90 per month, which isn't too bad but I think I will try it out further before I decide.

I have been asked this question many times: why are you studying a language?

I was asked the question again by my colleague at work today. And I gave her my usual answer, that's it's something I've always wanted to do--which if you think about it, does not actually answer the question!

So why am I learning languages?

I need to give it much more thought but I do find that I have been doing it rather serendipitously now, having the aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

Well, I won't say it's all accidental but I seem to somehow find the right tools or maybe we are now in a golden time where there is a flood of language learning resources out there.

I mentioned many times before that I have been trying to learn Mandarin all my life. But for some reasons, I could suddenly able to pick it up so much faster and easier than before with the tools that I have.

To mark my progress. This was how it looked like back in June 2017, after learning it for 3 months, growing from zero to 3033 mature cards.

And after another 4 months now in October 2017--don't ask me why the pie chart has grown larger--it took me much longer to gain only another 1083 mature cards. It is much more difficult as I progress on.

There isn't any finish line when it comes to acquiring a language. And it looks like I will still be trying to learn Mandarin all my life.

I was in a discussion about how some organizations or projects operate on a need-to-know basis and whilst I understand why there is a need to do that sometimes, it is really frustrating for team members not to know what and why they are doing what they are doing.

More importantly, creativity will not happen because they do not even know what to be creative about.

With that in the midst of our discussion, this scene from Ratatouille suddenly came to mind.

Can we not equate such team members to rats in the walls?

In the scene, as Remy the rat escaped from the sewers up to the walls of a building, he scurried from room to room observing what was happening in each.

Isn't this akin to team members who only have the privilege to peep in to departments or sections in the company but do not know what they do?

And only when Remy climbed up and up and up onto the roof--which analogically is where top management is--he sees Paris.

Isn't it tough to be working in projects or organizations like these, where all we can do is scurry here and there to find out what's going on?

I have not been watching TV for the longest time--only 16 days but it does seem like an eternity--and what I have doing instead are reading and going through my language flashcards that can go up to 300 cards a day.

What I found was that I became so much more tired than before.

Why?

I came to the conclusion that with watching TV, it is an almost brainless activity that I can last till the wee hours of the morning but when I study languages, my brain works so hard that by the time it's 10 o'clock at night, I'm so exhausted I'd fall asleep at the blink of an eye. Learning languages is hard work.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History says this: "Did you know that your brain makes up about 2% of your body weight…but uses about 20-25% of your body’s total energy, just for its basic activity? That’s one hungry brain! No wonder it’s good to eat nutritious foods that offer a lot of energy. The brain of a newborn baby is even more amazing, as it takes up about 60% of the baby’s energy as the brain grows at an astonishing pace."

I'm not sure where they based that information on because as I understand it, it's only still a theory for now but there are enough studies to point to that fact though.

According to this article Energy-hungry brain likely cause for slow human growth: study, "Most researchers believe this is because human body needs to divert a huge fraction of its resources to the brain during childhood, leaving little to be devoted to body growth. As humans we have so much to learn, and that learning requires a complex and energy-hungry brain."

Looks like my brain has been on full swing these 16 days of no TV.

Hmm...I'm really wondering now if I should ever get back to mindless television binging again.

Grace Notes will soon be putting up a concert to raise funds to help the Sengoi orang asli kids in Kampar, and we went there to visit them today.

We wanted to find out what their needs are. And according to their sharing, we found that other than physical needs like shoes and eye glasses, revision books and a computer, what they also need are opportunities.

Opportunities to learn and to be exposed, to find out what they can do as they grow up and when they move into the working world.

And on the whole, there is a need to support them when they grow from the current 16 kids to 37 next year.

They are a bright and smart group of kids. In just 9 months, a few of them have progressed from being the poorest in class performance to being the top best performers. Amazingly, they picked up English very well too, and as we spoke to them in Malay, they were even helping us to translate English words into Malay.

I have begun to cook and bring my lunch to work. I found that it is so easy and it doesn't stress me up at all. And it's healthier and so much cheaper.

It all began with a fluke.

One evening some months back, I realized that I have these lamb shanks in the freezer I need to cook them already.

And I only have onions.

The thing is I cannot even say that I don't usually cook. More accurately, I don't cook at all!

I popped the lamb and onions into the pressure cooker and amazingly it came out so well. But I couldn't finish it and so I decided to freeze it and brought it to work the next day.

That's how it all started. It was easy, tasty and very satisfying. When I had reheated the lamb at work, the others in the pantry area kept trying to figure out where the awesome aroma was coming from. I was smiling to myself and quite amused too since it's nothing but just lamb and onions.

Since then I have bought some small containers for storing and freezing. And I have not been really adventurous. I just kept it simple.

Here's what I do.

I buy a ginseng soup pack and a tray of 4 to 6 drumsticks. I put them all in the pressure cooker with 2 cups of water for 30 minutes. I separate them into 4 containers. I freeze them.

I cook 2 cups of brown rice for 20 minutes in the pressure cooker and store them in 6 separate containers. I freeze them.

And the beauty of it is that I can do these two things on separate days.

And here is what I have for every serving. The chicken in ginseng soup, rice, a bowl of fresh green vegetables and a bowl of dried seaweed with added hot water:

I assemble them and this is what I get:

I am one person that don't mind eating the same thing over and over again. But this time I had this craving for Thai Green Curry. I followed this recipe and made 4 servings of this:

This took a little longer since I did not use the pressure cooker but the jar of ready-made Green Curry simplified the process by a whole lot. I couldn't find any bamboo shoots but next time I will substitute it with green beans.

Keep it simple and stick to the few ingredients you have. You don't have to be fanciful. Stick to the basics. You don't have to cook like a gourmet. Forget those cooking shows. They are just for show.

Let me encourage you to cook!

I can still stick to these two recipes with some variations. One medium turkey thigh instead of chicken drumsticks. And there are so many different kinds of soup packs. I'll try Bak Kut Teh the next round. And I just heard someone said the word Marmite. Hmm...I'd try Marmite Chicken after that. The key is to just keep it simple.

It was just two months ago when envy reared its ugly head in my life and I was quite badly affected that I really need to get it managed before it went bad that I found and bought a book to help me with it, which I blogged about here.

The book termed it as a sin that no one talks about which is why I am so grateful that it was the topic of our sermon this morning by Pastor Wong Fong Yang.

Pastor gave us these four ways on how to overcome envy:

1. Having a proper grasp of the gospel that will lead to godly contentment. Jesus is the Lord of all our circumstances. From that deep contentment will flow a right desire for and rejoicing at the good of our neighbour.

2. Love others, for in 1 Cor 13:4, love does not envy.

3. Enjoy the glory of God's creation and workmanship. Look on beauty and be grateful. Look on truth and be grateful. Look on talent and be grateful.

4. Have faith in future grace. Meanwhile, live, work and play with the view of the One audience in mind - his praise matters more than anything or anyone.

And I would like to add one more, courtesy of the author RT Kendall, that we should accept our calling. We should embrace what God has called us to and not look beyond it. He said, "He has a calling for your life--one that is infinitely better or greater than you could have come up with on your own. When you accept His will and His choice of a career--or job--you are at peace with yourself and lessen the temptation to envy or to be jealous."

And I also have this thought that we will still never ever be satisfied if we get what we covet or envy for. We will still want more and so to counter that, accept what we have and be grateful for it.

It is however, not an easy thing to do and I am not sure what will happen when it comes again.

We also talked a lot about it during our CG today and pastor teased us with the possibility of another sermon on Envy Part 2.

The topic of beauty and plastic surgery came up in a sermon some weeks ago. And as I thought about it, I was surprised when I asked myself this question: what's wrong with it if it is required for your job, if you are a model or an actor or actress. Of course, it's not as simple as that.

Which is why when I saw this book on sale in Kindle, I got a copy and started reading it today. It's a good book.

Beauty Sick, How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women

by Renee Engeln. PhD

It does not talk about people where beauty is required for their profession, but it's about all of us--men included but especially for women--having this thing call beauty sickness.

Beauty sickness is what happens when women's emotional energy gets so bound up with what they see in the mirror that it becomes harder for them to see other aspects of their lives.

Beauty sickness is fed by a culture that focuses on women's appearance over anything else they might do or say or be. It's reinforced by the images we see and the words we use to describe ourselves and other women.

Englen gave a TEDx Talk and if you don't want to read the book, the talk pretty much sums up her message.

We all fall somewhere along the continuum of this sickness. None of us can extract ourselves out of it but we need to manage it and not let it take away too much of our cognitive resources or time or money which we can spend on other more useful stuff.

I must say I have been quite involved in my effort to lose weight but I dare say that I am doing it healthily (except I should add in this thing call exercise which is not yet in the picture).

But I did learn that our bodies is not for show but function. Our bodies are given by God and for us to care and nurture. Be kind to yourself, and don't objectify it and don't let others judge you. And most of all, don't put your voice into others to judge yourself. Other people have other problems of their own.

I have been eating so much lately and not disciplined at all in keeping to my calorie counting diary, which surprised me when I weighed myself this morning and found that my weight dropped though it is still hovering a little above my goal.

With that I shall adjust my goal to a new one, -3 kilograms on top of my current goal and get back to logging in all my food intake on a daily basis.

I use the MyFitnessPal app which is very versatile. It provides a wide array of food with its nutritional values that you can search and add into your daily calorie intake. You can also add your own foods.

I started doing this September last year and I lost 10 kg in 12 months. But my colleague started on a fruit juice diet and he lost 6 kilograms in just 2 months. I really don't know how they do it.

Whatever it is, I need to get back to my daily discipline of limiting my daily calorie intake and stick to it to lose another 3 to 4 kilograms.

Since my body has already adjusted to my current lifestyle, food intake and weight, will it take me another long year to lose a mere 4 kilograms?

I am very happy with the time I have, now that I am not watching any TV. I finished a book all in one sitting yesterday and today as I looked through my huge list of books to read, this one stands out.

Sell With A Story: How to Capture Attention, Build Trust, and Close the Sale

by Paul Smith

I am not a sales person but I am intrigued with the power of story telling. And as much as I don't sell products, I am convinced that I need to learn up some salesmanship because I still need to sell own brand, my ideas and my proposals when I am at work.

I have only started with the book but it is a good start. I like the voice of the author and I am looking forward to learning how to tell stories and how to sell.

What is interesting is also this: the author provided a link to a website that has a quiz for you to gauge how well you spot a story. Not every "story" that people tell is a story.

From the 10 examples provided in the quiz, you are to determine if that is a story or not. Before proceeding to read up what makes up a story, I took the quiz.

And I am so pleased with the results.

It looks like I am a story spotting expert and that I find and retell great stories.

I have heard of Brennan Manning and the popularity of his books but I never did find out more about him though I did purchase a few of his book in my Kindle.

I decided to read The Furious Longing of God, and it was exactly what I needed.

The Furious Longing of God

by Brennan Manning

Manning was a master and expert on words. He really had a way with it. Mark Batterson who wrote the foreword to the book said, "Brennan has a raw poetic writing style that puts him in rare writing company. His words will gracefully confront the status quo in your life and reawaken a deep desire to know the One who desires you. Brennan also has a way of putting into words the subliminal fears and hopes and desires many of us have a difficult time verbalizing. That’s why his books resonate with readers on such a deep level."

The book touches on Christian Spirituality and how furiously God loves us.

Both theology, which is faith seeking understanding, and spirituality, which is the faith-experience of what we understand intellectually, offer a glimpse into the mystery. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles (1 Cor. 13: 12).

The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.

However, I find myself getting wary of it getting too loose on the grace of God. The book seem to elevate the love of God without enough mention of the grace of God and how undeserving we are of it.

Manning said, "if we continue to view ourselves as moral lepers and spiritual failures, if our lives are shadowed by low self-esteem, shame, remorse, unhealthy guilt, and self-hatred, we reject the teaching of Jesus and cling to our negative self-image."

It is true that those qualities are not what God wants in our lives. There is after all no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Maybe it's just me, but I cannot read the book with reckless abandon, though that was what I felt when I read it - to really immerse myself in the furious longing of God.